Students protest drag show planned for Catholic university Notre Dame

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Students protest drag show planned for Catholic university Notre Dame
Notre Dame, one of the most famous Catholic universities in the U.S., has defended the event on the grounds of academic freedom

Fox News [adapted] | October 28, 2023

Students at one of the most popular Catholic universities in the U.S. are protesting a drag event sanctioned by the school administration.

The University of Notre Dame, one of the most well-known Catholic colleges in the country, is hosting and sponsoring a drag queen symposium on November 3 as part of a one-credit course titled "What a Drag: Drag on Screen — Variations and Meanings."

Students who are upset with the event's contradiction to Catholic morality are pushing Vice President of Student Affairs Fr. Gerry Olinger to rescind the religious university's participation in hosting the event.

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"In the weeks following the completion of the regilding of the dome and Our Lady, promotional posters appeared throughout campus advertising a drag show on Nov. 3," students wrote in an editorial for a student publication. "Months were spent regilding Notre Dame’s Virgin Mary statue, accentuating the beauty and truth of her feminine form in imago dei — a feminine form that is warped and mocked in the burlesque-styled form of entertainment that is drag."

The students wrote, "We cannot help but question how witnessing such a performance prepares students to be forces for good and truth in the world."

Posters advertising the event say that anyone at the university can attend — tickets are free.

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"University funding will be paying drag artists to come to Notre Dame, dress as women, defile femininity,  and most importantly, promote the disordered ideology that gender and sexuality are fluid — in direct contradiction to the Catholic Church’s teaching," student Merlot Fogarty wrote to Olinger in an email.

Olinger defended the university event on the grounds of "academic freedom," according to Catholic News Agency.

"This freedom in academic contexts is critical, and the university protects this freedom even when the content of the presentation is objectionable to some or even many. Because the event you reference is part of a one-credit course in film, television and theater on the history of drag, the principle of academic freedom does apply in this instance," Olinger responded to the email, according to the outlet.

Drag queen performances have become a tense topic in Catholic communities following the celebration of anti-Catholic drag "nuns" by the Los Angeles Dodgers earlier this year.

The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence were given a "Community Hero award" by the baseball team ahead of its Pride Night celebrations.

The ceremony was pushed to more than an hour before the game and done with few spectators in their seats after weeks of outrage surrounding the decision.

Fox News Digital reached out to the University of Notre Dame for comment but did not receive a response in time for publication.